NEW YORK – Inside a Citi Field weight room, trainers applied ice to Mike Pelfrey. He had thrown nine nonpareil innings for the Mets, well enough to secure an ovation from the crowd of 30,086 and dim chants of his last name. But he was not in line for a victory as he retired to the home dugout.

Inside the Mets clubhouse, someone clicked on the television. It was the bottom of the 11th. Pelfrey looked and spotted a rookie – the 23-year-old cleanup hitter with “electricity in them hands,” his manager says – jogging the bases, having ended the proceedings. He never saw the pitch. He never saw the swing. He just bolted for the field.

“Of course,” Pelfrey said,” we ran out here and tried to celebrate.”

The Mets (31-27) met Ike Davis at the plate, there to greet him after his rocket into the right-field concourse gave the Mets an 11th-inning, 2-1 victory over San Diego here on Tuesday.

Mike and Ike. Here, on the second day of the MLB’s First-Year Player Draft, the first-round pick from 2005 and the first pick from 2008 supplied enough. Pelfrey (8-1, 2.23 ERA) provided the spine for this victory. Davis provided a lighting strike for the win – the team’s fourth in a row after sweeping the Florida Marlins over the weekend – and his first career walk-off home run.

“It might be the first one for him,” Pelfrey said, “but it’s not going to be the last.”

“He’s unbelievable,” Davis countered.

Pelfrey hadn’t thrown nine full innings since Aug. 25, 2008. On this night, he struck out six. He continued a sterling stretch of baseball this season. Pelfrey has not lost since May 1. In two June starts, he’s allowed two runs in 17 innings.

“You know what?” catcher Rod Barajas said. “Tonight was the night when I thought he might be in trouble.”

That’s because in the first inning, Pelfrey threw a weak curveball that third baseman Chase Headley rapped for a single. Against slugger Adrian Gonzalez, Pelfrey believed he could hit the outside corner. He was wrong. Gonzalez crushed an RBI double.

Pelfrey’s fastball velocity was down and his curveball was spotty. So Barajas stowed the breaking pitch away. He saw that all of Pelfrey’s sinkers were driving inside to the right spot. Last week against San Diego, Pelfrey tortured them with four-seamers on the outside corner. On Tuesday, he switched to sinkers the other direction.

The Padres had no answer. They cobbled together three more hits against him over the next eight innings. Pelfrey would cruise thereafter, able to put out man-on-second fires in the eighth and ninth.

“He’s now developed enough pitchability [sic] that he can managed and navigate his way through a major-league game,” Mets manager Jerry Manuel said. “Which is very impressive for a young pitcher.”

After regaining control, Pelfrey found himself in Johan Santana’s shoes. Santana has won a single game since the end of April, despite a return to his Cy Young form. He pitched without run support through all of May. Pelfrey felt the same sting.

The Padres countered him with Clayton Richard, a 6-5 right-hander in his second full season as a big-league starter. Richard harnessed his heavy slider to harass the Mets into striking out and short-circuiting chances for runs.

“He just kept coming in and out, throwing that slider,” said right fielder Jeff Francoeur, who extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a first-inning single. “I thought he did a good job. Sometimes, it seems when we face him, he gets a little wild. And tonight, he had good control.”

Richard was one out away from eight scoreless innings when he threw a 1-0 pitch to shortstop Jose Reyes. The ball lofted toward the left-field wall and bounced off the orange stripe. It fell back into play and left fielder Scott Hairston hustled it back toward the diamond.

“I thought I had it,” Reyes said. “But this is Citi Field.”

He braked at second. The game paused. The umpires convened and trotted inside to inspect the replay. After a four-minute delay, the swirling hands told the story: Home run. Tie game.

It would stay that way for three full innings, through Richard’s exit, through the ovation for Pelfrey, through a near walk-off for Angel Pagan.

Reliever Edward Mujica grabbed two outs to open the 10th. Then he hung a splitter to Pagan, who ripped the ball into the raised wall in right field. A fan appeared to reach over the barrier and make contact with the ball.

With Pagan at third, play stopped again. The umpires ruled it a ground-rule triple, basing their judgment on Pagan’s speed. But it meant little. Jason Bay grounded out to third. The chance was gone.

Mujica stayed in the game. As he warmed up for the next inning, Ike Davis stretched in the on-deck circle. Davis was 0-for-4, working his way through a so-so period.

Mujica threw a splitter and Davis swung at air. He watched the pitch for ball. Then Mujica floated a third splitter. Davis saw it all the way.

“That was a no-doubter,” Francoeur said.

“He made me look bad, I’ll you that,” Pagan said.

The ball sliced just left of the second-deck seats. Davis rounded the bases, wary of Los Angeles Angels’ first baseman Kendry Morales’ broken leg, and crossed the plate with a gentle hop.

In the aftermath, Pagan darted into the clubhouse kitchen. Someone handed him a towel and whipped cream. For the team’s last walkoff, infielder Alex Cora used shaving cream. That was met with mixed reviews.

This one went down better.

“As soon as they hit me,” Davis said, “I went ‘Oh, God.’ Because it got all the way in the back of my throat. And then I went, ‘Oh, that’s pretty good.’”